Telephone cables are often run under ground with above ground cabinets providing access to the cables for adding or changing service. These cabinets must be securely latched to prevent vandals from disrupting telephone service.
Above ground telecommunications cabinets typically have two overlapping doors to permit access to the entire interior of the cabinet when the doors are open. A draw and pull type latch is commonly used on such cabinets to draw the cabinet doors into proper alignment and to latch them in that position. Such latches have until now been an over center type so that when moved to the fully latched position the forces on the latch urge it firmly to the latched position. This has now been found to be undesirable in that when the service man attempts to unlatch the latch he must also pry it open from its over center position to fully unlatch it.